Voice of America Survey: Minorities enjoy more ‘security’ than before

A survey carried out by Voice of America (VOA) Bangla showed that the majority of the people in Bangladesh believes that the interim government is providing more security to the religious and ethnic minorities than the last Awami League government.

The result of the survey showed a bit of difference between Muslims and non-Muslims on the concept of security.

This survey carried out towards the end of last October showed that 64.1 per cent of the respondents believe that the interim government is providing more security to the religious and ethnical minorities compared to the Awami League government.

Only 15.3 per cent respondents believe that the interim government is providing less security to the minorities than they enjoyed before while, 17.9 per cent respondents believe that the situation is the same as before.

As many as 1,000 respondents were asked to compare the term of the current interim government with the regime of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the survey.

With consistency to the demography of Bangladesh, 1,000 respondents were selected for participating in the survey. There were equal number of male and respondents with 92.7 per cent of them being Muslims.

Slightly more than half of the respondents were aged below 34 years and about one fourth of the respondents were city dwellers.

The retaliation tendency noticed among different groups after the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August, was taken out on the religious minorities of the country, especially on the Hindus.

There were incidents of vandalism and arson on houses, businesses and religious establishments of the minorities in different places around the country.

Human rights activist in Bangladesh Nur Khan said, “We have seen that there were attacks on minorities because of their political involvement. Then again there were attacks on them also just for being minorities. There were attacks and arsons on the residences of Ahmadiyya community in Panchagarh.”

Deputy director of Human Rights Watch in South Asia, Minakshi Ganguly hinted that the minorities in Bangladesh are always at risk. None of the governments does much for the protection of their (minorities) rights, she added.

However after the interim government led by Dr Muhammad Yunus took charges, the administration, various religious institutions and common public came forward to guard minorities’ places of worship in an attempt to defuse the situation.

Nur Khan, a member of the enforced disappearance commission formed by the interim government recently told Voice of America in an interview, “We have witnessed quite a few exemplary steps from the common public, political parties as well as from the religious communities. As a result of that, the situation improved within the next one month.”

In the result of the survey done by Voice of America, a slight difference has been noticed among the Muslims and the non-Muslims respondents regarding the concept of security.

Only 13.9 per cent of the Muslim respondents believe the situation to be worse than before. Whereas, 33.9 per cent of the respondents belonging to religious minorities believe that the interim government is doing worse than the last Awami League government in case of their security.

Jayati Sarkar, a resident of Dhaka city was never worried about her or her family’s safety before. But she’s not so sure anymore.

The survey showed that 66.1 per cent of the Muslim respondents believe that the interim government is providing more security to the minorities than the Awami League government.

Meanwhile, 39.5 per cent respondents from the religious minorities agree with this supposition. That means a significant portion of the minorities believe they are provided more security than before.

Although Jayati Sarkar is worried about safety, she does see some relief there. She said that the Awami League government was in power for 15 years. People under the patronage of their leaders and activists bought lands from members of the Hindu community on lower prices or forced them into selling their lands. They are not there anymore. So, there’s a sense of relief there, she added.

A resident of Dhaka and an official at a private firm, Hiren Pandit believes that the security situation has improved compared to that in August and September as a result of army personnel being deployed even in the rural areas recently.

However, he too is worried. Hiren Pandit said, “Houses have been torched in our village and we are still in a state of anxiety concerning security. A sense of insecurity is there after all.”

There had arisen a concern even on the international level for the sudden increase in violence against minorities after the change of government in Bangladesh.

Spokesperson for Indian ministry of foreign affairs used to regularly express their concern to the media.

Secretary of state for the United States, Antony Blinken met with chief adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh Dr Muhammad Yunus on 26 September.

Later spokesperson for the US department of state Matthew Miller stated that the two leaders among other issues discussed the importance of human rights protection for all the citizens of Bangladesh including members of the minority communities.

The United States president-elect Donald Trump on 31 October prior to the presidential elections wrote in a social media post, “I strongly condemn the barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities who are getting attacked and looted by mobs in Bangladesh. The country is in complete chaos.”

However, the interim government of Bangladesh has labeled the attacks on minorities as ‘isolated incidents’. They say that the news of violence against Hindus is being circulated through ‘exaggeration’.

Marking 100 days of the interim government, Dr Muhammad Yunus gave a speech addressing the nation on last 17 October. In his speech Dr Yunus said that the minorities became victims to violence in some cases but those were political matters.

The main reasons behind the few cases of violence that have been there were political. But, there have been attempts of destabilising Bangladesh anew by covering these incidents under the wrapper of religion, he added.

Minakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch says that India’s support towards Sheikh Hasina’s ‘oppressive’ rule has also put the Hindus at risk and the role of New Delhi would be significant in future.

The international communities should be concerned about the rights of minorities in every place. However, they especially India should be more cautious about the groups that wants to spread hatred and violence by circulating misinformation, she added.

The incident of targeting Hindus on any sort of excuse is not a new thing in Bangladesh. For example, human rights activist Nur Khan says that in the past they have seen the strong attacking the weak at times of political instability in the country and the minority communities become the main target for that.

However, Nur Khan has been noticing positive signs in recent times. He said, “The fear there was during the Awami League government’s regime, is clearing out gradually. The minority communities have started finding a sense of relief. But, it’s too early to say if they have been able to become completely trusting or not.”

Jayati Sarkar is still concerned about the fact how confident she can be regarding safety.

According to Nur Khan there’s a concern among many that what will be the situation after the next three months. That means a crisis of confidence is there after all. Whether the base of confidence on the part of the minority communities will grow stronger or not will depend on the incidents as well as on the actions of the interim government in the next six to nine months, he added.

Human rights activists believe that the government and the student leaders should take even more steps to publicly reassure the minority communities of their rights and security.